07.30.2023 - The Kingdom of Jesus

Scripture: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Matthew 13:31–33 NIV

31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” 33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Matthew 13:44–52 NIV

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. 47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked. “Yes,” they replied. 52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

The Kingdom of Jesus

7/30/2023

Order of Service:

Announcements

Back to School Blessing

Opening Worship

Testimonies about Bethel Mall

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Children’s Moment:

Back to School Blessing

I would like to invite all children and youth who are going back to school to come forward. So if you are in preschool to College come down here and sit we would like to pray over you. Teachers and any one who works in the schools we ask that you would stand so we can recognize you and pray for you also.

Praying is a wonderful way to kick off a new school year. Whether you are nervous or excited about the new school year its always good to go to God with our praises and concerns. Will you pray with me?

Dear God, we thank you for the wonderful summer break that we have had. For the time we have been able to spend with family and friends. As we look ahead over the next couple weeks we are starting a new school year. We come before you today to lift up these students and their parents/grandparents, teachers, school workers to you.

We ask that you would help each of these students to find joy and delight in learning about the world around them. As they enter this school year, help them to make wise choices that will help them grow and mature. Surround them with good friends who will encourage them and help them grow closer to you.

We pray for the protection over these students. Thank you for protecting them from the evil one. I ask that you will surround them with a hedge of protection. As they enter this school year and conduct their studies in the classroom, protect them from all harm and danger. May you watch over their coming and goings.

With that we also ask that you would help them to live in peace this upcoming school year. Thank you for your peace that surpasses all understanding. Help them to cast their cares and anxiety on you, and may you guard their hearts and minds.

As they enter this school year, protect their thoughts, emotions, and their souls. Help them to know that their emotions are part of who they are as humans, and that they can go to you whenever they are feeling hurt, angry, sad, or disappointed. Guard their hearts through the power of your Holy Spirit. Equip them with everything they need to live godly lives that lead others to you.

We lift each the family members of these students up to you. Help them to offer each other grace, patience and kindness. As they navigate busy schedules help them to find balance and joy.

As we enter a new school year, we can also pray for teachers, staff, and administrators. Teachers have a very special calling, filled with joy, challenges, and triumphs.

Give them wisdom to teach what is honorable, excellent, and true. Help them to instill within their students a love and passion for learning and exploring the world around them.

Grant them patience, love, and acceptance of their students, and give them a continuous drive, passion, and dedication to the field of education. May their work as teachers never be in vain, but may they produce a harvest of righteousness and truth as they seek your Word for wisdom and understanding.

We lift this new school year up to you. Amen

As you leave we have bookmarks for each of you students.

The Kingdom of Jesus

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Indescribable

There is a song, written about 20 years ago, by Laura Story, where she took up the challenge of King David’s psalms, and the hymn “How Great Thou Art” and many other artists across history who have tried to describe a God who is so much bigger than we can imagine. The first couple words to the chorus of Laura’s song are:

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.

You are Amazing, God.

Like all the artists before her, she writes about the sun, moon, stars... and all the beauty of creation that must be so small compared to God. Yet He knows each part of them down to the tiniest details. Our thoughts are not like God’s thoughts. Our perspective is not like God’s perspective. And when we allow ourselves to stop long enough to look back and see how much He is doing at this moment, it is more than we can hold in our minds and far more than we could ever put into words.

Beyond the natural beauty of our world are the incredible stories of everyone who has ever lived and all the work they have done with their hands and minds. Over time, humanity, the jewel of God’s creation, has accomplished terrific and terrible things. Yet the Bible tells us that all of this unimaginable glory is a tiny spark compared to the blazing firestorm of Who God is, and all of that becomes truly visible to us in Jesus.

Our scriptures today invite us to see God in some ways that are not meant to be perfect descriptions but rather point us to Jesus. We can know God through Him and discover who we were created to be in Him because, in Jesus, God saves and redeems people for His Kingdom.

Small Things Make Big Differences - Redeemed to Save

The Bible teaches that small things make big differences. Adam and Eve brought sin into the world by eating fruit from one forbidden tree. God gave the Hebrew people ten big commandments followed by dozens of small instructions in great detail about how to go about daily life. Every one of them mattered. But it is not just bad things that occur in small acts. The prophecies of the Old Testament went into precise details about what the promised savior would do, and Jesus fulfilled those prophecies in small ways that could not have been planned by anyone other than God.

Small things make big differences, and that is one of the most essential aspects of God’s Kingdom. But it is more than just small things, according to these first two parables. They are hidden, humble things that God uses to make big differences.

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The first two parables are about the mustard seed and yeast. Both are tiny things that grow and cause growth around them. The mustard seed is a tiny seed hidden in the ground. It grows smaller than the cedar trees of Lebanon and certainly not as big as the Redwood trees in California. Instead, it grows wide. It is often considered more of a bush than a tree and takes over the ground where it is planted. The birds find shelter in it, not because it is so tall, but because it is thick and accessible to birds of all shapes and sizes - those who fly high and those who stay low to the ground.

We may be more familiar with yeast, the hidden ingredient that makes bread dough rise. Typically, yeast illustrates sin or evil, but in this parable, Jesus redeems it to describe how God’s kingdom spreads and grows underneath the surface. Look again at how much dough Jesus mentions to describe His Kingdom. Sixty pounds of flour! The little bit of yeast mixed into that much flour would make it grow tremendously, leaving you baking for days and ending up with enough bread to feed hundreds of people. So it is with God’s Kingdom. God transforms and redeems the multitude with small hidden, humble acts.

The Value of the Kingdom Over Time

We often think of small things in single moments hoping for ongoing effects. Those moments can be like ripples on a pond created by a skipping stone. But some of God’s tiny miracles continue to bless others over time.

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Today's last three parables from our scripture teach a similar lesson about the incredible value of those small, hidden miracles in God’s Kingdom. The hidden treasure in the field and the pearl of great price are both parables where the person who discovers them goes and sells everything they have in exchange for that treasure, that pearl. The last parable Jesus teaches in this passage is a fishing parable. In many ways, it is like our scripture last week about the wheat and the weeds, where Jesus describes the judgment that occurs at the end of the work, not during the work. The fishermen only sort out the good and bad fish at the end of the day, not before.

These three parables are short, sweet, and to the point. Each one has a small thing to teach us that goes and grows with us over time. However, in these last three parables, Jesus changed direction from his farming parables to move back to fishing illustrations, and something intriguing happens here in this change. Instead of buried seed-producing fruit, He begins with buried treasure on the land that is worth everything we have. Then, connecting with the treasure concept, we have the merchant in the marketplace looking for pearls. We end in that same marketplace where the fishermen are sorting out fish. It is as if Jesus is taking us from the farm into town and finding different examples to tell us about God’s Kingdom. Like the mustard seed and the yeast, Jesus takes one small concept and grows it out in many other examples, each pointing back to how God wants to work in us: Small things that make big differences in our lives and those around us.

But there is even more here. Let’s take a step back and look at these last three parables again, beginning at the end. The fishermen sorting the fish bring in the oysters holding the pearls. Then they sell them at the market to the merchants, who might, in turn, find a place in the ground to bury that precious treasure. This treasure, this pearl of great price, passed through many hands and managed to bless each of them as they were doing their jobs. In the end, or beginning of these stories, is the man who is just out seeking and hoping and is blessed by their endeavors.

If this was all one story, we might wonder if the merchant forgot where he buried his treasure or why the fishermen did not recognize the full value of the oyster with the great pearl. Jesus tells us, in the end, this represents God’s Word, given to many people over the centuries. It is more valuable than anything we could ever own and will bless us daily. But it is not ours to own forever. God’s Word is fulfilled and brought to life in Jesus, and He is that hidden treasure, that pearl of great price. He is worth everything we have, not because He cancels out the scripture but because God’s Word is brought to life in Him. He is not ours to keep. He is ours to share.

The Edges of Your Field

God works in big ways through small ways as we follow Jesus over time. The work you did in the last weeks for Bethel Mall will continue to have ripple effects upon others over the weeks and months ahead. You can count on God for that. But what do you think we could do tomorrow? How can we continue to participate in God’s Kingdom every day?

In the Old Testament, God commanded his people to leave the edges of their fields and whatever fell out of their wagons for the poor and the stranger to harvest. The blessings were passed from one to another on the edges of these fields. How many farmers began praying for those visitors as they worked the fields? How many visitors struck up friendships with the farmers who helped provide for them? I don’t think farmers could easily pack bags and travel themselves. How many of those farmers did not get to see Jesus themselves and hear Him preach and teach but heard all about Jesus from those who gathered at the edges of their fields?

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The Kingdom of God is passed along the edges of our field in small ways with big effects. Where is the edge of your field? It might be your physical property. It could be your home or your workplace. Who is gathered at the borders of your life? Where can you invite others to be blessed by your life as you discover that Jesus cares for you in abundance?

The hungry will be fed from the fruit of God’s Word bearing fruit in you until they, too, find that treasure of great value and give up their old life for the source of all new life we have in Jesus. And so His Kingdom will grow on the edges of our fields as strangers become neighbors and neighbors become family. As Jesus grows in and through us all, His indescribable Kingdom will grow without end. God wants to use our mustard seeds of faith in Jesus, hide them like yeast in the flour, and save and redeem more lives than we can imagine.

Where is the edge of your field? How can you help others meet Jesus there?